Maximum pressure on Minister Puente

BarcelonaThe tragic accident in Toledo has put the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, under scrutiny. And as the hours pass, the pressure on him to provide explanations about the causes of the accident is growing even more, as are the voices demanding accountability from him. In fact, it has been the far-right that has bluntly demanded the minister's resignation and has also filed a lawsuit against him. However, criticism is also coming from the parties that are still part of the coalition government, and the Sumar has demanded explanations from Puente. For the moment, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, maintains his confidence in the head of Transport, according to sources from Moncloa who explained to Efe that they believe the railway accident has nothing to do with his management. Puente will appear next Tuesday before the Standing Committee of Congress to provide explanations. But the PP is not satisfied and also wants Sánchez to explain himself, having requested him to appear.

“I am thinking about clarifying this [the accident], and not about myself,” the head of Transport replied when reporters asked him on Wednesday if he had thought about resigning. He said this at the first press conference he offered after an AVE train rear-ended an Iryo train in Urda (Toledo) – this Friday, the minister will offer another press conference –. Puente pointed to a “human error” as the main cause of the accident and, a few hours later, various media outlets published the audio recordings of the Adif technician who allowed the AVE driver to proceed while the Iryo train was still stopped. It is this audio that has outraged parties of both the right and the left, because they believe the Ministry of Transport is shirking blame and placing all responsibility on the Adif technician. In fact, in a recorded statement, Colau described it as “absolutely unacceptable” that workers are being “thrown to the wolves.”

The Podemos candidate, Irene Montero, sent a similar message, criticizing the fact that all the “responsibility is being placed on one worker when everyone sees that the system is failing.” The same message was sent by the leader of ERC in Congress, Gabriel Rufián. "A single person cannot be responsible for the lives of hundreds when we are referring to railway transport," he wrote in a tweet, where he also pointed to the PP and the PSOE for their management and called for "assuming responsibilities".

CCOO went even a little further, directly requesting the “immediate” dismissal of Puente. Furthermore, the union also demanded a “rigorous and transparent” investigation into the accident so that responsibilities may be determined and “hasty” conclusions are not drawn. In fact, they criticize the “public finger-pointing” at the Adif worker from the control center.

Feijóo insists on Puente's “responsibility”

The pressure against Puente also continues to arrive from the right. Vox has demanded his dismissal and has filed a lawsuit against the minister for the crimes of homicide and injuries due to gross negligence, according to the document to which ARA has had access. The PP, for its part and as it already did on Tuesday, has once again demanded explanations from the Spanish government, but this morning Alberto Núñez Feijóo has already pointed directly at the Minister of Transport as responsible for the tragedy and has raised the tone: “With this way of managing, one cannot continue”. “Politics does not consist of disqualifying, of talking, it consists of doing when it comes to exercising a political office and much more with a technical component”, he stated. Feijóo sees it as “essential” that Puente assumes “political responsibilities”.

In fact, the popular leader has taken the opportunity to criticize Puente's profile on social media, which is one of the most belligerent against the right, and has defended that a minister must have “experience, management and rigor: either you surround yourself with people who know or things like this happen”. Feijóo has visited the area affected by the accident and has also criticized that the Spanish government has “blamed” the accident on the Adif worker. “We cannot conclude simply with this frivolity, in my opinion improper for a minister”, said the popular leader from Urda.